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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

It is league policy. Multiple suspensions for Subtances/PED’s and the like can trigger the League Remittance policy in which the team pays a percentage of the suspended player’s salary to the league. It can also include loss of draft picks.

I’m anxious to hear how pointed the questions will be towards the management of this team for being responsible for creating/having/allowing one of the most banned-substance violating teams in the entire league. They need their feet held to the fire.

It may not be “their fault” per se but, “You can delegate authority, you can’t delegate responsibility.”

“Offensive lineman Allen Barbre tested positive in 2011, the year before he joined the Seahawks. The Seahawks signed him before the suspension was announced. The team cut him rather than putting him on the roster.

Fullback Via Taua tested positive just after being signed to the practice squad. He had been a free agent just trying to land with a team before that.

Offensive lineman John Moffitt tested positive for a substance that is legal in the NFL if the player has a prescription. Moffitt has a prescription, and has had it for years. The only reason he was suspended was because he and the team doctor didn’t properly file all the necessary paperwork on time.

Cornerback Richard Sherman appealed his suspension and won, something that is supposed to be virtually impossible given today’s tests and testing protocols. Sherman was able to prove that his test sample had been tampered with.

So you have 3 PED cases. Such a huge problem for the last 3 years.”

If that is all true, I don’t see how blaming the staff is the right call in this situation.

Agree thursday. Unfortunately overreaction has again taken a front row seat here again. This is nothing more then a speed bump, and this teams talented leaders far out weigh the actions of a few knuckle heads. Last I looked we are the best team in the NFL. What more can we ask?

The buck stops at the head man’s desk.
Several years ago when that nuclear submarine surfaced underneath a Japanese fishing boat that caused fatalities, the skipper wasn’t even on the bridge. Guess who got the court-martial? It wasn’t the junior officer who gave the controls to a civilian guest who performed the breach surface maneuver. It was the Captain. His was the career ruined. He was responsible. So goes the rules of leadership.

I’m not asking for any heads, just answers. But for the management of this team to say, “Didn’t happen on my watch!” is not acceptable. It doesn’t matter what their record is. These are repeat offenses by repeat offenders.

doubledink, bullcarp. The blame goes on BB and WT3. These are grown men that PC can not monitor 24 hours a day. Both BB and WT3 knew the consequences if they were caught…multiple times. I don’t fault PC/JS for giving them chances.

griz,
I agree. WT3 and BB deserve all of the blame. Unfortunately, leadership is also responsible. At what point would you look to the leaders of a group that failed repeatedly in the same area? These are systemic problems.

In the ’80s quality guru W Edwards Deming met with the leaders of Ford Motor Co. and asked them to raise their hands if they had any “dead wood” in their departments. When all of the leaders raised their hands he then asked them, “Did you hire them that way, or did you kill them?”
Hint: both answers held them responsible. What followed was the mantra “Quality is Job One” and the most successful project in Ford’s history, the Taurus.

Georgia,
Don’t get me wrong, I think Pete is the best thing that ever happened to the Seahawks.

If you or your fellow employees keep making the same mistake, yes. If you fail to wear fall protection, and there are resultant accidents and others continue to fail to wear fall protection and someone dies, your boss will go to jail. It is called gross negligence. Not for the first or perhaps the second offense, but if there is a continuous pattern, they will. If you build a pedestrian bridge and it fails due to your mistake or error the guy who gets sued is your employer not you.

I believe that Pete and the coaches have bent over backwards to do the right thing re: substances. I’m tired of all the moralizing and the free leadership consulting. Crap happens. What NFL team doesn’t have crap happening? What NFL coach is the model? A few months ago people on this blog were pointing to Harbaugh of all people as the model. Belechick? How about the guys over at the Dolphins? If you want choir boy management, I hear Tim Ruskell might be available. In case people haven’t noticed it, we live in a drug-addled society. It’s a bad thing. But to expect the sixty odd guys on a pro football team not to reflect society is idealistic and a bit hypocritical. It’s too bad for BB. Stupid of Thurmond. Bad for the team. But it’s made infinitely worse by a bunch of rabid fans jumping around with axes in their hands and calling for heads.

point me in the direction of one coach in the present day who has run a completely clean ship while winning games.

it’s all fine and dandy to spout the buck stops here bs, but when it comes right down to it, logically, there’s bound to be players and circumstances out of their control. like carroll even just said, “we like to give guys extra chances and sometimes it won’t work out”

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